Israel celebrates birthday amid fears

JERUSALEM -- Israel began celebrating its 56th birthday Monday evening, with large numbers of Israelis uneasy about the country's present and pessimistic about their children's place in its future.\nSecurity was tight and Palestinians were banned from entering Israel during the holiday, which began at sundown, at the end of the solemn commemoration of the annual memorial day for Israel's fallen soldiers.\nAt sundown, the somber atmosphere abruptly gave way to fireworks displays, open-air concerts and street festivities. Israelis explain the juxtaposition by saying the battles in which the soldiers died helped create and maintain the Jewish state.\nAddressing a large crowd at the ceremony at the military cemetery in Jerusalem, Reuven Rivlin, the speaker of the Israeli parliament, said Israel's struggle for independence is still going on. "Nothing can be taken for granted," he said.\nRivlin appealed for steadfastness among his people. "We face constant terrorism that does not discriminate among its victims," he said, a reference to more than three years of Palestinian-Israeli violence that has taken a toll on the national morale.\nA poll published in the mass circulation Yediot Ahronot newspaper showed large numbers of Israelis are pessimistic about their country's present and fear their children may not have a future in the Jewish state.\nThe poll was taken as members of the ruling Likud Party prepared to vote May 2 over Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to unilaterally evacuate 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, and Attorney General Meni Mazuz considered a recommendation from Israeli prosecutors to indict Sharon for accepting $700,000 in bribes from an Israeli businessman.\nThe newspaper poll found 80 percent of respondents believed Israel's economic situation was not good, and 70 percent feared Israel's younger generation was not assured of a good future in the country.\nThe results contrasted sharply with public opinion polls from the mid and late 1990s that showed the great majority of Israelis were optimistic about the future.